Anything, Everything, or Nothing At All

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

Leopard v Crocodile!

[The Baron]

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

Popeye vs Godzilla, seen on Twitter

[The Baron]

"RAF and German jets intercept Russian aircraft near Estonian airspace"  I only recently learned that the German name for their air force is still the Luftwaffe.  I'm imagining a time travler from 1942 saying:  "How are the RAF and the Luftwaffe on the same side now?  How exactly did the war end?"

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

"the German 71 Tactical Air Wing Richthofen"

The Baron said:

"RAF and German jets intercept Russian aircraft near Estonian airspace"  I only recently learned that the German name for their air force is still the Luftwaffe.  I'm imagining a time travler from 1942 saying:  "How are the RAF and the Luftwaffe on the same side now?  How exactly did the war end?"

[Captain Comics]

Luftwaffe translates to "air weapon," so it's still applicable. But if I was a German I would consider changing it!

[Luke Blanchard]

I've gotten interested in which of the stories from Batman's first year were written by Bill Finger, and which by Gardner Fox. The GCD currently attributes the stories from #29-#34 to Fox apart from the origin sequence in #33, which it interprets as an addition to Fox's story. I think, partly on the basis of parallels to Finger's work elsewhere, that it's more likely the stories were mostly by Finger.

Fox certainly wrote the script for #30, as his script has survived and has his name on it. The ending was rewritten by hand. The revised ending is more Finger-like, so it's my theory the revision was by Finger.

When the Monk story from #31-#32 was reprinted in 100 Page Super-Spectacular #DC-14 E. Nelson Bridwell added story credits to Gardner Fox and wrote in the letters column that Finger told him “that the two-parter which opens the issue was Gardner Fox’s first Batman job.”

There seems to have been a change in plan while the Monk story was in progress, as the opening caption of #31’s instalment calls the Monk “a man whose powers are uncanny, whose brain is the product of years of intense study and seclusion!”, and in #32’s instalment - spoiler warning! - he turns out to be a vampire. My theory is Fox started the story and Finger finished it. The twist is foreshadowed in #31 by several references to werewolves, but it could be Finger revised Fox's script.

#33's story was likely all by one author. The origin can't have been tacked onto an otherwise-unchanged 10-page script as p.3 of the story doesn't have room for a logo panel or splash panel. The writer was probably Finger as he used the motif of motivating trauma again in Robin's, Green Lantern's and Wildcat's origins (and Two-Face's). 

There might be all kinds of pieces of information I don't know about. I don't have Les Daniels's Batman book. Can anyone add anything?

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

When I looked into the mirror this morning, I saw Jim Aparo's Commissioner Gordon looking back at me.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"I don't have Les Daniels's Batman book. Can anyone add anything?"

I have that book, Luke, and I also have DC Comics by the same author. 

DC COMICS: "One of editor Vin Sullivan's last decisions before leaving DC was to recruit Gardner Fox, a friend from grammar school days. 'He became a lawyer,' says Sullivan, "but he never practiced. He liked to write.' Fox, who who went on to become one of the most popular and prolific writers in the business, helped Finger by contributing a two-part story that began in September 1939 [#31-32]. For a fill-in, it proved to be fraught with implications."

BATMAN: "The script for [#29] has been attributed to Finger, but authorship was claimed years later by Gardner Fox, who is always acknowledged to have written the fifth and sixth Batman tales [#31-32]."

Finally, I consulted THE GOLDEN AGE BATMAN: Vol. 1, which credits Gardner Fox with #29-34 (#31 "with Bill Finger").

Hope this helps.

[Richard Willis]

Be the first to own the exclusive Blue Beetle tee!

https://shop.dc.com/product/stacked-logo-back-print

Has the most-recent version of Blue Beetle really been popular? Will these T-shirts sell?

[Luke Blanchard]

Thanks, Jeff. Spoilers for the stories below.

#29: Dr Death's death scene in #29 is very similar to the Joker's "dying" rant at the climax of the second Joker story in Batman #1. The story overall is not much like the early Sandman stories. So I think it was more likely Finger's. It was the first 10-pager. Fox may have been thinking of the story for #30, where the villain returns. Fox's script must have been written from the script for #29's story rather than the finished instalment as he calls Jabah "Serge" and refers to him as a Cossack, whereas in the published story he's an Indian; but that's consistent with either of them having written #29's story.

#31: The description of the Monk in the opening paragraph of #31's story is of a piece of the conception of the Mad Lama in the "Zatara" story from Action Comics #9, likely written by Fox: "High on the cold mountains of inner Asia, in the hills of Tibet, dwell the lamas, holy men who have perfected their mental powers to immense capacity. The Western world turns to machinery - but the Tibetans turn their thoughts inward to become mental marvels." Fox revisited the idea in Zatanna's intro from Hawkman #4; her father had told her about "an evil, oriental lama he was trying to capture-- and also of a sinister being called the Druid.." I think this confirms Fox started the story.

However, the sequence where Batman is in the net being lowered towards the pit of snakes is very like a "Rusty and His Pals" sequence from Adventure Comics #42-#43. I think they're probably by the same writer. "Rusty and His Pals" was Bob Kane's major DC feature before "Batman". Presumably Finger wrote it for him.

"Batman" went to 10 pages with its third instalment. The first two were 6. My current pet guess is Fox wrote a 6 page story intended as the start of a serial (with a cliffhanger ending, the appearance of the gorilla), it was preempted by the shift to the longer length, and Finger extended the story to 10 pages and wrote the completion of the story in #32. The attribution of the whole story to Fox might stem from it being natural to suppose whoever started it finished it.

#34: The car-fight with the Duc D'Orterre in #34's story is like the one between the Batman and Joker in the first Joker story in Batman #1. (I list this one next as the stories in #33 and #34 were evidently run out of sequence. The Duc D'Orterre story is set in Europe and refers to the Monk story at its start.) 

#33: the idea of a villain who idolises Napoleon was reused in the Batman story in World’s Finest Comics #8. The GCD currently credits it to Jack Schiff, but perhaps that's a mistake. The Dirigible side of the plot was substantially repeated by the Sandman story in Adventure Comics #61 (=the instalment that introduced the wirepoon), for which the GCD currently has no writers’ credit.

The origin does set up an element of the main story, as it’s where Batman was first shown to be an expert scientist. Heading into the climax of the story he devises a way of protecting his Batplane from the Dirigible’s rays.

To be fair, Fox's heroes were often scientists and the Sandman is shown to be one in his story in New York World's Fair Comics #1. On the other hand, the action element in #33's main story is more like Finger's early Batman stories than the early Sandman ones; the reason the Sandman carries a gas gun is so he won't have to resort to fisticuffs!

[The Baron]

Well, the Finns are our allies, now.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

...the country where I want to be.